Call your members of Congress (MoCs) to defend the Affordable Care Act (ACA, aka Obamacare) again, this time from a fresh 2018 onslaught.

This is one of those things that needs constant action, aka repeated calls. Hence OTYCD scrambling our schedule. Right now we’re alternating between fighting the family separation policy and its effects, and staying on this. That might change, of course. As always, keep watching, and follow the Twitter accounts recommended in the text below for breaking news.

BREAKING: The House GOP just voted a budget bill out of committee that fast tracks ACA repeal and $2 TRILLION in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid. We need to flood them with calls to prevent a floor vote.

If you’re game to add a second thing to your plate, you should voice concern to all three of your MoCs about Trump’s executive order on his family separation policy.

It does not address the question of how to reunite more than 2,000 children who have been parted from their parents.

It also contravenes a standing policy that requires the government to release families after holding them for 20 days if the detention center is not also a licensed child care facility. Team Trump, in essence, wants the leeway to detain families indefinitely.

Read an NPR story about what the executive order does and does not do:

And even though releasing migrants with GPS ankle bracelets is significantly cheaper than detaining them and has an extremely high compliance rate, too, Team Trump killed that program as of June 20, 2018.

So, again, if you’re up for multi-tasking: Ask your House Rep to vote no on the 2019 budget bill, and ask all three MoCs to demand that Team Trump make reuniting parted migrant families its first priority, and ask the government to resurrect the GPS ankle bracelet program.

Original text of yesterday’s Defend the ACA post follows.

Followers of this blog will remember how we cleared our (weekday) decks and posted only about ways to fight GOP attacks on the ACA.

We did this for weeks on end, at least two distinct, separate times. Both times, the GOP failed. (Thank you.)

But they’re not done. Despite the fierce, loud, and sustained resistance they got last year (and thank you all again for that), they’re trying again.

As of June 19, 2018, the House GOP put out a 2019 budget proposal that’s a toxic stew of still more tax cuts, cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, and yet another attempt to repeal the ACA.

Read this June 19, 2018 Bloomberg article on the 2019 House budget bill:

Here also is a string of tweets by Topher Spiro (@TopherSpiro) raising the alarm and reacting to the bill:

BREAKING: The House GOP just released a budget bill that fast tracks ACA repeal, massive Medicare and Medicaid cuts, and tax cuts. Possible vote next week. FLOOD THE HOUSE WITH CALLS.

Here is why it’s incredibly important to kill this right here and now. Once they obtain reconciliation authority, they can use it after the election but before new members are sworn in.

<He then quotes this paragraph from the Bloomberg story:>

While the Senate is unlikely to adopt its own budget to take up these initiatives before the November congressional election, the budget process could be used by lame-duck lawmakers after the election to ram through Republican-only legislation.

Here are the reconciliation instructions for fast-track authority for ACA repeal, Medicaid cuts, and Medicare privatization. The numbers are *floors* – minimum funding cuts with authority for unlimited cuts.

<He then links to the bill itself: https://budget.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/BUDGET_RESOLUTION_FY2019_xml.pdf>

This budget bill slashes Medicare by $537 billion and Medicaid by $1.54 TRILLION

A successful reconciliation effort is *very* unlikely but not impossible, especially if McCain were to resign and be replaced before November, which would allow Rs to lose 1 senator among Rand, Corker, Murkowski, Collins.

…and Spiro comments: This is correct. The threat is real. We must nip it in the bud now.

We at OTYCD suspect that Republicans are looking at the poll numbers, seeing the blue tsunami heading for them, and trying to wreck and warp and break as much of the government as possible before they’re swept out of office for what could be a damn long time.

Alternately, they may feel like the increasing chaos of Trump and his swirling universe of scandals–with Manafort off to jail for violating the terms of his bail, and his ex-lawyer Michael Cohen on the verge of turning state’s evidence against him, and the entirely different strain of fuckery represented by his sick and immoral policy of separating immigrant parents and children at America’s borders–gives the GOP cover to try this bullshit again.

We have to push back. Hard, loud, forcefully, and NOW by calling our House Reps and telling them to vote against the 2019 budget bill their GOP colleagues are pushing.

Also, a recap: You already know about the Department of Justice (DOJ)’s abdication of duty on a goofy lawsuit against the ACA brought by 20 state attorneys general who want to kill it. Legal scholars across the spectrum agree that the lawsuit is crap, but the DOJ responded by refusing to enforce the ACA on the assumption that it’s unconstitutional and it won’t be law much longer.

If the DOJ stance prevails and the ACA dies, that means the protections for folks who have pre-existing conditions goes with it.

That would be Very Bad Indeed. A total of 52 million Americans under age 65 have pre-existing conditions that make it crushingly expensive or flat-out impossible for them to obtain health insurance in a pre-ACA world.

If you don’t have a pre-existing condition, you know someone who does. We can’t go back to the way things used to be. We just can’t.

(Side note: More than 30 state attorneys general are up for re-election in 2018. Did yours join the anti-ACA lawsuit? Did yours join the counter-suit to defend the ACA? Did yours do neither? Find out and act accordingly.)

…Start following them and checking their feeds a couple of times a day. Slavitt and Spiro are strong on health care news. Pewter is on top of everything to do with Congress and legislative stuff, health care included. Wikler’s feed is more general, but makes health care a focus.

The trick to manage, going forward, is staying on multiple Dumpster fires.

You need to keep supporting efforts to get Team Trump to rescind its fucked-up policy of separating families at the border.

You’ll also need to be ready to call your MoCs, probably more than once, maybe even daily, to defend the ACA. You might need to think about going to protests and marches in defense of the ACA.

We at OTYCD may need to post more than one thing you can do. That could happen. We’ll try to avoid it, but if we have to go back to doing a daily to support Obamacare, we will.

While we get comfortable in our defensive crouch, here are some relevant articles.

This June 14, 2018 Washington Post piece shows that damn near every big organization to do with doctors, hospitals, and health care have filed amicus briefs against the anti-ACA lawsuit:

This Paste Magazine story uses Andy Slavitt’s recent tweets as a jumping-off point to explain what would happen to people with pre-existing conditions if Congress or the courts kill the ACA, and the general fuckery that the lawsuit represents:

Learn which 30 state attorneys general are on the ballot in 2018, so you can vote out the state AGs who are attacking the 130 million Americans who have pre-existing conditions, and so you can support the state AGs who are defending those vulnerable people.

The attorney general (AG) is the state’s lead legal officer. State AGs have been crucial to curtailing and/or stopping the agenda of Trump and his cabinet. Several banded together to sue when Trump tried to implement his various Muslim travel bans, and they banded together to sue when Department of Education head Betsy DeVos tried to roll back protections for student borrowers who were cheated by for-profit schools.

The state AG is often, but not always, an elected position. In some states, the governor appoints the AG instead.

AGs can form part of a triplex–a situation in which the governor, the attorney general, and the secretary of state all belong to the same party. This is distinct from a trifecta, in which the governor and both chambers of the state legislature belong to the same party. In either case, when the three posts yield a triplex, it can be easier for party officials to impose their agenda. As of January 1, 2018, there are 23 Republican triplexes and 11 Democratic triplexes.

Below is a list of state AG posts that are open in 2018, with notes on whether the incumbents will run or not.

Update, June 9, 2018: By now you have heard about the insane response from the Department of Justice (DOJ) to a goofy lawsuit from several state attorneys general that would kill the ACA and end up removing protections that ensure that people with pre-existing conditions can get health insurance.

A total of 20 state AGs are suing to kill the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, and the vital protections it enshrines. As of now, 16 state AGs and the AG for the District of Columbia have countersued to defend the ACA.

We have updated our April 2018 post on which states are holding AG elections in 2018, and we are identifying whether the incumbents are defending the ACA or trying to destroy it. We’re also identifying states that have not entered either lawsuit, and naming Democratic incumbents and challengers who you can nudge to join the 17 who are fighting for the ACA.

There’s been a lot of attention to the 2018 Congressional races, and there should be. But please don’t neglect state-level races such as these. Attorneys general have been a valuable force for defending against the horrors of the Trump administration. Please reward and support those who are fighting back, and vote out those who are not.

As with the Congressional races, all of the state attorney general elections take place on Tuesday, November 6, 2018.

Alabama: Republican incumbent Steve Marshall will run for his first full term. He was appointed in 2017 after Republican Luther Strange was appointed to fill the Alabama Senate seat vacated by Jeff Sessions. Alabama has a Republican triplex.

At least one Democrat, Chris Christie (yes, that’s his name, and yes, he’s a different guy than the outgoing New Jersey governor), will appear in the June 5 primary.

Update, June 2018: Alabama is one of the 20 states suing to destroy the ACA.

Democrat Joseph Siegelman defeated Chris Christie in the June 5 primary. Siegelman is the son of a former Alabama governor and AG who was charged and ultimately served time for corruption and obstruction of justice charges.

He has never run for public office before. He does not appear to have made a statement about the anti-ACA lawsuit, but he has spoken about fighting the opioid epidemic, and he has generally expressed a commitment to defending vulnerable people.

See Democrat Joseph Siegelman’s website and donate to his campaign: https://www.siegelman2018.com

Follow him on Twitter: @JoeSiegelman

Arizona: As of January 1, 2018, Republican incumbent Mark Brnovich had not decided if he would run for a second term. Arizona has a Republican triplex.

At least one Democrat, January Contreras, will run in the August 28 primary.

Update, June 2018: Arizona is one of the 20 states suing to destroy the ACA.

Brnovich appears to be running again. Contreras is his Democratic opponent. She does not appear to have made a statement about the anti-ACA lawsuit, but we can tell from her website that she’d be joining the 17 if she was in charge.

See Democrat January Contreras’s website and donate to her campaign: https://www.januaryforaz.com

Follow her on Twitter: @JanuaryAZ

Arkansas: Republican incumbent Leslie Rutledge will run for a second term. Arkansas has a Republican triplex.

As of January 1, 2018, no Democrats had signed up for the May 22 primary.

Update, June 2018: Arkansas is one of the 20 states suing to destroy the ACA.

Fortunately, since we wrote this post, a Democrat joined the race: Mike Lee. While he has not made a specific public comment about the anti-ACA suit joined by his opponent, it’s clear from his website that he’d oppose it.

See Democrat Mike Lee’s website and donate to his campaign: http://electmikelee.org

Follow him on Twitter: @ElectMikeLee

California: Democratic incumbent Xavier Becerra will run for his first full term. He was appointed in January 2017 after then-AG Kamala Harris won a California Senate seat in 2016. California has a Democratic triplex.

California uses a top-two primary system for its AG race, which sends the top two vote-getters in the June 5 primary to face each other in the general election. As of January 1, 2018, one other Democrat and two Republicans had committed to the primary.

Update, June 2018: California is one of the 17 states countersuing to defend the ACA. Becerra is leading the charge.

Becerra won his June 5 party primary and will face opposition in the fall.

Colorado: Republican incumbent Cynthia Coffman is leaving the AG post to run for governor.

At least five Democrats will run in the June 26 primary.

Update, June 2018: Colorado has not joined either of the lawsuits. Ballotpedia shows that the Democratic AG primary field is down to two: Joseph Salazar and Phil Weiser.

Neither candidate appears to have made a public statement about joining the countersuit. Neither devotes an explicit heading to the ACA in the issues section of their campaign sites, but Weiser published a blog post in May 2018 about fighting for affordable, accessible health care.

See Phil Weiser’s website and donate to his campaign: https://www.philforcolorado.com

Follow Weiser on Twitter: @pweiser

See Joe Salazar’s website and donate to his campaign: https://salazarforcoag.com

Connecticut: Democratic incumbent George C. Jepsen has chosen not to run for a third term. Connecticut has a Democratic triplex.

At least one Democrat, former federal prosecutor Chris Mattei, has committed to run in the August 14 primary.

Update, June 2018: Connecticut is one of the 17 states countersuing to defend the ACA.

On June 8, Chris Mattei tweeted in favor of the countersuit:

The DOJ, which should be a refuge for the exploited & powerless, just argued in court that 52 million people w/ pre-existing conditions can be denied coverage contrary to the ACA. This is disgusting. This is not justice.

See Chris Mattei’s website and donate to his campaign: https://matteiforct.com

Follow him on Twitter: @ChrisMatteiCT

Mattei has since been joined in the August 14 Democratic primary by Paul R. Doyle and William Tong.

Weirdly, Doyle’s webpage isn’t loading at the moment; we’ll update this post accordingly when it is.

Tong has not given a statement about the countersuit but his campaign site is dead clear that he does not like what Trump is doing in general, and will resist his agenda.

See William Tong’s website and donate to his campaign: http://www.williamtong.com

Follow him on Twitter: @WilliamTongCT

Delaware: Democratic incumbent Matthew Denn has chosen not to run for a second term. Delaware has a Democratic triplex.

At least one Democrat, Tim Mullaney, will run in the September 11, 2018 primary.

Update, June 2018: Delaware is one of the 17 states countersuing to defend the ACA.

Mullaney has since been joined in the party primary by Kathy Jennings, Chris Johnson, and LaKresha Roberts.

Weirdly, Mullaney does not appear to have a campaign site right now, just a Facebook page:

At least one Democrat, Ryan Torrens, will appear in the August 28 primary.

Update, June 2018: Florida is one of the 20 states suing to destroy the ACA.

Torrens has since been joined in the primary by Sean Shaw, and there’s still time for other Floridians to jump in to the state attorney general race; the filing deadline is June 22, 2018.

Torrens has not made a specific statement against the anti-ACA suit, but a look over his website leaves no doubt that he’s not in favor.

See Torres’s website and donate to his campaign: https://www.ryanforattorneygeneral.com

Follow him on Twitter: @RyanforFLAG

Ditto for Sean Shaw: No specific comment on the suit, but judging by his website and Twitter feed, we doubt he supports it.

See Shaw’s website and donate to his campaign: https://seanshaw.com

Follow him on Twitter: @SShawFL

Georgia: Republican incumbent Chris Carr will run for his first full term as AG. He was appointed in October 2016 after Republican Samuel S. Owens resigned to take the presidency of Kennesaw State University.

As of January 1, 2018, no Democrats had committed to the May 22 primary.

Update, June 2018: Georgia is one of the 20 states suing to destroy the ACA.

A Democrat has since stepped up to challenge Carr: Charlie Bailey.

Bailey hasn’t made a public comment about the lawsuit, but he’s endorsed by the Democratic Attorneys General Association, which is promising, seeing as it’s Democratic AGs who are pressing the countersuit.

See Charlie Bailey’s website and donate to his campaign: https://charlieforgeorgia.com/home/

Follow him on Twitter: @charlie4georgia

Idaho: Republican incumbent Lawrence Wasden will run for a fourth term as AG. Idaho has a Republican triplex.

As of January 1, 2018, no Democrats had committed to the May 15 primary.

Update, June 2018: Idaho has not joined either of the lawsuits.

A Democrat, Bruce Bistline, has since joined the AG race, but the Idaho situation seems weird. We found a 2014 (repeat, this is NOT A CURRENT ARTICLE) story online that stated that Bistline would not campaign actively. He appears to be doing the same this time around, too, but he hasn’t said as much to the local press.

The filing deadline to run was back in March, so it’s too late for the Dems to choose someone else.

We get that Idaho is a pretty damn red state. But c’mon, Idaho friends, could you at least pick a Democratic AG candidate who will actually, you know, show up and put up a fight? We at OTYCD think that y’all can do better than Bistline.

Illinois: Democratic incumbent Lisa Madigan decided not to run for a fifth term as AG.

At least eight Democrats will run in the March 20 primary, including Renato Mariotti.

Update, June 2018: Illinois is one of the 17 states countersuing to defend the ACA.

As the son of a community physician and a cancer survior myself, I believe everyone should have access to health care, regardless of income or pre-existing conditions. If Donald Trump won’t enforce the law and protect people, as attorney general, I will.

See Raoul’s website and donate to his campaign: https://kwameraoul.com

Follow him on Twitter: @KwameRaoul

Iowa: Democratic incumbent Tom Miller will run for his tenth term in office. He held the post from 1978 to 1990, when he stepped away to run for governor. He lost, ran for AG in 1994, and has successfully held the office ever since.

As of January 1, 2018, no Democrats had committed to the June 5 primary.

Update, June 2018: Iowa has not joined either of the lawsuits.

The filing deadline passed without any Democratic challengers leaping in.

In the past few days, Miller has tweeted from his official AG account (@AGIowa) in favor of defending the integrity of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which Mick Mulvaney is trying to gut. He’s also retweeted fellow state AGs talking about pushing back against nasty stuff that Betsy DeVos is trying to pull. But Miller hasn’t said anything related to the ACA or health care.

Democrats in Iowa, how about you call Miller’s office and ask him to join the 17 who are countersuing to save the ACA?

We can’t find a campaign website for Miller, but here’s a link to his page on VoteSmart, which has an email address for his campaign:

She hasn’t yet said anything about either lawsuit but hey, Michiganders? We at OTYCD bet she’ll come out in favor of joining the 17 if you call and ask her to do so.

See her website and donate to her campaign: https://www.dana2018.com

Follow her on Twitter: @dananessel

Minnesota: As of January 1, 2018, Democratic incumbent Lori Swanson had not yet decided if she would run for a fourth term. Minnesota has a Democratic triplex.

At least four other Democrats have announced they will run in the August 14 primary.

Update, June 2018: Minnesota is one of the 17 states countersuing to defend the ACA “by and through its Department of Commerce.”

Swanson has since announced she will run for governor of Minnesota.

Five Democrats have filed for the August 14 primary, most notably Keith Ellison, who is giving up his House of Representatives seat in the 5th District to aim for the open Michigan state AG post.

On June 8, Ellison tweeted this message with a link to a Politico story:

Trump’s Justice Department is calling on the courts to throw out protections for people with pre-existing conditions, but CA AG Xavier Becera fights back.

See Ellison’s website and donate to his campaign: https://keithellison.org

We’ll add his AG-specific Twitter account once he creates one.

We at OTYCD are having trouble with Tom Foley at the moment. Ballotpedia redirects to the wrong Tom Foley (a Republican in another state), and Minnesota’s Tom Foley is far from the only Tom Foley in politics. We can’t seem to find a campaign site for him, either.

Consider this an invitation to Minnesota AG candidate Tom Foley’s folks to get in touch with us here (see the About & Subscribe page) so we can update this section accordingly.

Debra Hilstrom has not made a specific statement about the countersuit but we have no reason to believe she wouldn’t support it.

See Hilstrom’s website and donate to her campaign: https://debrahilstrommn.com

Follow her on Twitter: @debrahilstrom

Matt Pelikan has not made a specific statement about the countersuit, but the header of his Twitter page is him standing with Senator Elizabeth Warren, so, no worries there, we think.

See Pelikan’s website and donate to his campaign: http://mattpelikan.com

Follow him on Twitter: @mattpelikan

Mike Rothman also has not made a specific statement in favor of the countersuit, but judging by his website, he’s probably in favor.

Nebraska: Republican incumbent Doug Petersen will run for a second term. Nebraska has a Republican triplex.

At least one Democrat, Evangelos Argyrakis, will run in the May 15 primary.

Update, June 2018: Nebraska is one of the 20 states suing to destroy the ACA.

Unfortunately Democrats might be up the creek in this race. Argyrakis is the only Democratic candidate, but local papers reported in April that he assaulted his 82-year-old father after accusing him of taking money from his mother. So, erm, awkward.

We at OTYCD can’t seem to find a campaign website for him either, which is probably for the best. If we learn about whether a write-in campaign is allowed, we will update accordingly.

Nevada: Republican incumbent Adam Laxalt is running for Nevada governor instead of a second term as AG. Nevada has a Republican triplex.

At least one Democrat, state Senator Aaron Ford, will appear in the June 12 primary.

Update, June 2018: Nevada has not joined either of the lawsuits.

Since this post came out, Stuart MacKie entered the Democratic primary.

On June 9, Aaron Ford tweeted:

Nevadans with preexisting conditions like asthma or diabetes deserve health care. As #NVAG I will stand up for the thousands of Nevadans who could lose health care access because of this dangerous lawsuit.

Four Democrats have entered the September 13 primary: Zephyr Teachout, Sean Patrick Maloney, Leecia Eve, and Letitia James. As of June, all are actively gathering signatures so they can appear on the ballot.

Zephyr Teachout does not appear to have said anything about the countersuit but we doubt she’d be against it.

See her website and donate to her campaign: https://zephyrforny.com

Follow her on Twitter: @ZephyrTeachout

Sean Patrick Maloney announced on June 6, 2018 that he’d run for AG, but he might not abandon his re-election campaign for his House of Representatives seat in New York’s 18th Congressional District while he does it (FWIW, we at OTYCD think this behavior is hinky. Take the risk, dammit).

He hasn’t made a specific statement about the countersuit but it’s clear he’s for it.

Letitia James has not made a specific public statement and doesn’t yet have a campaign site that’s specific to the AG race, but from what we’ve seen, we believe she’d support the countersuit.

She’s talking about her AG candidacy on her personal Twitter: @TishJames

North Dakota: As of January 1, 2018, Republican incumbent Wayne Stenehjem had not decided if he would run for a sixth term. He is the longest-serving AG in the state’s history. North Dakota has a Republican triplex.

No Democrats have announced they will run in the June 12 primary.

Update, June 2018: North Dakota is one of the 20 states suing to destroy the ACA.

David Clark Thompson has since become the only Democrat in the state AG race. He needs to step up his Twitter game (two tweets, both in May, that’s all), and he doesn’t appear to have said anything about the anti-ACA suit, but we don’t see anything on his site that contradicts the notion that he’d oppose the suit.

See his website and donate to his campaign: http://www.davidthompsonforndag.com

Follow his Twitter feed: @thompsonndag

Ohio: Republican incumbent Mike DeWine will run for governor instead of a third term as AG. Ohio has a Republican triplex.

At least one Democrat, Steven Dettelbach, will run in the May 8 primary.

Update, June 2018: Ohio has not joined either of the lawsuits.

Dettelbach has not said anything about either lawsuit. Ohio Democrats should ask him to support the 17.

See Dettelbach’s site and donate to his campaign: https://steveforohio.com

Follow his Twitter feed: @SteveDettelbach

Oklahoma: Republican incumbent Mike Hunter will run for his first full term after being appointed in 2017 to take the place of Scott Pruitt, who now heads the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Oklahoma has a Republican triplex.

No Democrats have announced they will run in the June 26 primary.

Update, June 2018: Oklahoma has not joined either of the lawsuits, which is kind of surprising when you think about it.

Since writing the original post, Democrat Mark Myles has entered the race.

He must have joined pretty recently because his campaign website is a placeholder. See it here: https://www.electmarkmyles.com

At least one Democrat, Peter Neronha, will run in the September 12 primary.

Update, June 2018: Rhode Island is one of the 17 states countersuing to defend the ACA.

Nehrona has not said anything specific about the countersuit but we have no reason to believe he doesn’t support it.

See his website and donate to his campaign: https://peterneronha.com

Follow him on Twitter: @PeterNehrona

South Carolina: Republican incumbent Alan Wilson will run for a third term. South Carolina has a Republican triplex.

No Democrats have announced they will run in the June 12 primary.

Update, June 2018: South Carolina is one of the 20 states suing to destroy the ACA.

Since writing the original post, Democrat Constance Anastopoulo entered the race. She will run unopposed in the primary.

As with many Democratic AG candidates, Anastopoulo has not said anything specific about her state joining the anti-ACA suit, but nothing on her campaign site indicates she’d support it.

See her site and donate to her campaign: https://www.anastopouloforag.com

South Dakota: Republican incumbent Marty J. Jackley will run for governor instead of a third term as AG. South Dakota has a Republican triplex.

No Democrats have announced they will run in the June 5 primary.

Update, June 2018: South Dakota is one of the 20 states suing to destroy the ACA.

South Dakota Democrats will choose between two AG candidates at their June 15-16 convention: Tatewin Means and Randy Seiler.

Right now, both are using Facebook instead of splashing out on campaign sites. Neither has directly addressed the lawsuit, but Seiler did write a health care-themed post of note on June 8:

SD recently expanded coverage of substance abuse to people who qualify for Medicaid. Falls short though in expanding eligibility that could target services to get people the help they need – with the Federal government paying 90% of cost. Note that Republican AG candidate Russell voted no on the expanded coverage for treatment.

Texas: Republican incumbent Ken Paxton will run for a second term. Texas has a Republican triplex.

At least one Democrat, Justin Nelson, will run in the March 6 primary.

Update, June 2018: Texas is one of the 20 states suing to destroy the ACA, and is co-leading the effort with Wisconsin’s AG.

Nelson ran alone in the primary.

On June 9, he tweeted:

Here’s the pattern now: Ken Paxton files a lawsuit to make a partisan point and to distract from his own indictment. Trump then uses Paxton’s suit as an excuse. Lather, rinse, repeat. That’s wrong. I believe it’s Texas first, not Tea Party first.

See Nelson’s site and donate to his campaign: https://www.nelsonfortexas.com

Follow him on Twitter: @NelsonforTexas

Vermont: As of January 1, 2018, Democratic incumbent T.J. Donovan has not decided if he’ll run for a second term.

No Democrats have announced they will run in the August 14 primary.

Update, June 2018: Vermont is one of the 17 states countersuing to defend the ACA.

Donovan did commit and defeated a Democratic primary challenger to run again.

See his site here and donate to his campaign: http://donovanforvermont.com

Follow him on Twitter: @TJforVermont

Wisconsin: Republican incumbent Brad Schimel will run for a second term.

At least one Democrat, Josh Kaul, will run in the August 14 primary.

Update, June 2018: Wisconsin is one of the 20 states suing to destroy the ACA, and is co-leading the effort with Texas’s AG.

The filing deadline passed on June 1, meaning Kaul will run unopposed in the primary. He’s the son of a former AG, Peg Lautenschlager.

On June 8, Kaul tweeted:

@BradSchimel‘s effort to allow health-insurance companies to deny coverage to Wisconsinites with pre-existing conditions is wrong. We should be working to expand access to affordable care. #ProtectOurCare

See Kaul’s website and donate to his campaign: https://www.joshkaul.org

Follow him on Twitter: @JoshKaulWI

Subscribe to One Thing You Can Do by clicking the button on the upper right of the page. And tell your friends about the blog!

See the document that lists the 20 states that are suing to kill the ACA:

Call your Members of Congress and make it damn clear to all three that you support the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and you support the 16 state attorneys general (plus the District of Columbia) who are countersuing to defend it.

Having failed to get Congress to kill the ACA, the Trump administration is trying a ridiculous, bullshit move. On June 7, the Department of Justice stated it would not defend the law against a suit brought by 20 state attorneys general.

To quote from a June 7, 2018 story in the Washington Post:

In a brief filed in a Texas federal court and an accompanying letter to the House and Senate leaders of both parties, the Justice Department agrees in large part with the 20 Republican-led states that brought the suit. They contend that the ACA provision requiring most Americans to carry health insurance soon will no longer be constitutional and that, as a result, consumer insurance protections under the law will not be valid, either.

The same night, Topher Spiro, who has done consistently great work with defending the ACA, CHIP, and GOP assaults on health care, tweeted the following:

Trump’s Justice Department just refused to defend the ACA and asked a court to invalidate protections for people with pre-existing conditions. Luckily, Democratic states have intervened and will defend the law.

This is an open and shut case. It is frivolous, a truly wacko claim. Texas argues that because Congress repealed the individual mandate, the pre-existing condition protections must also go. Congress obviously disagreed.

The judge is right-wing and unpredictable. So he could very well strike down the protections. But the circuit court would reverse.

This development is important because 1) Trump is thoroughly politicizing the DOJ and refusing to defend the law of the land and 2) this creates some degree of uncertainty that contributes to GOP sabotage.

Three respected career DOJ attorneys withdrew from the case in protest just before this brief was filed. That tells you how politicized this is. This is a political attack on the ACA and people with pre-existing conditions.

I don’t believe people should worry too much about this court case. Nothing we can do about it anyway. I believe people should worry about repeal if they keep the House. THAT we can do something about.

One thing is clear: Trump made a BIG mistake attacking pre-existing condition protections tonight. He may have awakened a sleeping giant.

The problem with the Trump Administration’s response to the latest ACA suit is not its refusal to defend the mandate so much as its adoption of problematic (and quite cynical) approach to severability.

Then the arguments here are cynical-squared. No matter how one conceives of severability doctrine, the underlying premise here is absurd.

…Back to Topher Spiro. He cited the fact that 16 other state attorneys general, plus the District of Columbia, had filed a countersuit. And while he did state he felt people shouldn’t worry about the court case, he did recommend that folks call their MoCs:

The average number of people with pre-existing conditions is about 300,000 per congressional district. Find your district. Get the number. Hold Republicans accountable.

We agree with him. Even though he’s right, and legal scholars from across the spectrum affirm that the state AGs’ anti-ACA lawsuit is wack (scroll down for a link), we at OTYCD think it’s worth it to call your MoCs and make it completely and utterly clear that You Are Not On Board With This Shit.

Suggested script: “Hello (Senator/House Rep Lastname,) I am (Firstname Lastname of town, zip code). I realize this is a Department of Justice matter at the moment but I wanted to call and make it absolutely clear that I support the Affordable Care Act and I oppose any attempt to undercut it or its key provisions. The lawsuit that was brought by the 20 state attorneys general, and which the DOJ has essentially backed by refusing to enforce the law, is crap. Most legal scholars agree that it’s crap. But if the DOJ does not wise up and do the right thing, there is a chance that the suit will advance, and the protections the ACA grants to people with pre-existing conditions will be threatened.

It’s estimated that at least 52 million non-elderly Americans have pre-existing conditions. If you don’t have one, you love someone who does. We cannot go back to the bad old days when health insurers would only cover you without bankrupting you if you’d never been sick in your life, at all, ever. That would be cruel and insane. And I am putting you on notice: If any representative of mine votes to cripple or kill the ACA, I will work to throw that person out of office. Thank you for listening.”

Follow Topher Spiro on Twitter:

@TopherSpiro

Read a June 8, 2018 Vox piece in which a range of legal scholars smack down the anti-ACA lawsuit that the DOJ is rolling over for:

Call your MoCs about renewing CHIP, finding a DACA solution, and ending the government shutdown, January 22 update.

To recap: CHIP is the Children’s Health Insurance Program. It covers the medical needs of about nine million American children. Passed in 1997, it expired on September 30, 2017.

Congress should have renewed it before it expired. But Congress is controlled by the GOP, which had other priorities.

Donald Trump deliberately left those covered by the Deferred Access for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program hanging when he pulled the plug on it last year (something he did not have to do) and gave Congress until March 2018 to act.

The people in the DACA program are often called the “Dreamers.” Their parents brought them to America when they were small; they are Americans in every respect except that they lack citizenship documents.

Damn near everyone agrees that Congress should fund the doctor bills of poor kids and should not kick out people who’ve lived in America for most if not all of their conscious lives. The GOP is dithering on the first, and Trump and his white supremacist toadies in the White House are mucking with the second.

Said dithering and mucking lead directly to the government shutdown that started on January 20, 2018

We at OTYCD are asking you to call your MoCs again today.

If they’re Dems, thank them for holding firm and for trying to find work-arounds such as a bill that will fund affected members of the military.

If they’re Republicans, give them a piece of your mind. Tell them to send Trump a version of the Continuing Resolution (CR) that renews CHIP and protects the Dreamers.

Celeste Pewter (@Celeste_pewter), who you should follow on Twitter (you are, right?) has a calling script to use with Republicans:

To stay on top of things we at OTYCD recommend following the Twitter feeds of:

Andy Slavitt (@aslavitt)

Topher Spiro (@TopherSpiro)

Ben Wikler (@benwikler)

And the aforementioned Celeste Pewter (@Celeste_Pewter)

They will have news on CHIP/DACA/government shutdown situation faster than we will.

Call your senators about renewing CHIP and passing DACA with no strings attached.

The continuing resolution (CR) drama continues. The bill passed the House of Representatives last night, moving it to the Senate.

Congress must pass the CR before end of business today to avoid a government shutdown.

Other reminders and recaps:

CHIP is the Children’s Health Insurance Program. It covers the medical needs of about nine million American children. Passed in 1997, it expired on September 30, 2017.

Donald Trump deliberately left those covered by the Deferred Access for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program hanging when he pulled the plug on it last year (something he did not have to do) and gave Congress until March to act.

The people in the DACA program are often called the “Dreamers.” Their parents brought them to America when they were small; they are Americans in every respect except that they lack citizenship documents.

Damn near everyone agrees that Congress should fund the doctor bills of poor kids and should not kick out people who’ve lived in America for most if not all of their conscious lives. The GOP is dithering on the first, and Trump and his white supremacist toadies in the White House are mucking with the second.

Andy Slavitt (@aslavitt) tweeted some observations on the evening of January 18. Here are some selections:

I’ve just talked with a handful of members of Congress and several other staff members. The chances of a government shutdown are now completely unpredictable. More here shortly. Follow if interested. 1/

Word is Trump was required to negotiate with the Freedom Council [sic] to get them support a Republican-only CR with CHIP and no DACA in it. Freedom Caucus apparently committed. 3/

Word is there are a number of Senate Rs (at least 3) that won’t vote for the CR as is. They plan to try to add DACA in a bipartisan amendment. 4/

Never underestimate the personal politics of a shut down. House is on recess next week. One Congressman reminded me that many have overseas travel & family trips planned. Senate is here next week any way. Expect them to be more willing to vote no if they don’t like the bill.6/

Back to the House deal. Freedom Caucus votes came at a price and that price seems to be quick life of defense caps with a conservative immigration bill— rejecting the bipartisan Senate compromise on DACA.

This would mean no domestic caps lifted. No reasonable DACA. I way that gets through the Senate. This is the closest I can get to surmising to where Trump is on the issue. 10/

When the bill came to the Senate, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell adjourned before rather than work into the night. Independent Maine Senator Angus King objected, as relayed in this tweet from Senate D [Democrat] Floor Watch (@DSenFloor):

Sen. McConnell asked consent to adjourn until 11AM tomorrow. @SenAngusKing: I object. I don’t understand why we’re adjourning when we’re in this urgent situation. We can vote tonight on cloture and have an entire day tomorrow to work on this matter.

Also on January 18, Ben Wikler (@benwikler) had several things to say about the CR mess:

The fact that the GOP’s strategy is still to pass a CR with entirely GOP votes in the House is so dumb. They’ll need 60 votes in the Senate to avert a shutdown. They’ll also need 60 votes in the Senate to *end* a shutdown.

A bill that can get to 60 in the Senate will also be a bill that draws significant D support in the House. So Ryan’s bright-red strategy will have to end. He’s just delaying an inevitable compromise. People say Trump acts like a toddler, but he’s not the only one.

They’ve convinced themselves the public will blame a shutdown on Dems, leading to Dems caving. So they’re triggering a shutdown. Which is a profound misread. They apparently still think Dems believe the 2018 electorate will look like the 2010 electorate, instead of like 2008.

There’s no reason for CR after CR. And last week, it seemed like the CR era was going to end. Trump told Graham and Durbin he liked their DACA deal, right up until his pet racists got him riled up and started ranting about shitholes. That’s when everything derailed.

Others have pointed out that if the shutdown happens, it will coincide with the first anniversary of Trump’s inauguration. Make of that what you will.

We’re going to point you to the January 17 calling script by Celeste Pewter (@Celeste_pewter), who you should follow on Twitter (you are, right?).

It doesn’t mention anything about the CR–just CHIP and the DREAM Act.

You will want to call just your Senators:

To stay on top of things we at OTYCD recommend following the Twitter feeds of:

Call your members of Congress (MoCs) and urge them to renew CHIP and pass a clean DACA bill, dammit.

CHIP is the Children’s Health Insurance Program. It covers the medical needs of about nine million American children. Passed in 1997, it expired on September 30, 2017.

Congress should have renewed it before it expired. But Congress is controlled by the GOP, which had other priorities.

Donald Trump deliberately left those covered by the Deferred Access for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program hanging when he pulled the plug on it last year (something he did not have to do) and gave Congress until March to act.

The people in the DACA program are often called the “Dreamers.” Their parents brought them to America when they were small; they are Americans in every respect except that they lack citizenship documents.

Damn near everyone agrees that Congress should fund the doctor bills of poor kids and should not kick out people who’ve lived in America for most if not all of their conscious lives. The GOP is dithering on the first, and Trump and his white supremacist toadies in the White House are mucking with the second.

Please call your MoCs–all three of them–and ask them to knock it off and do their jobs.

Celeste Pewter (@Celeste_pewter), who you should follow on Twitter (you are, right?) has your calling script:

Now, some discussion of how this is tangled up in the need to avoid a government shutdown.

Congress needs to pass a Continuing Resolution (CR) to keep the government funded past Thursday, January 18. They passed a short-term CR late last year that expires Friday.

The CR under discussion in the House of Representatives includes a six-year extension for CHIP, but nothing about DACA.

Not including DACA has enough Congresspeople annoyed–mostly Democrats but including some Senators who have been working on a bipartisan solution–to make them tilt against voting for a CR.

Things are still pretty liquid right now, and are changing by the minute, seemingly.

To stay on top of things we at OTYCD recommend following the Twitter feeds of:

Andy Slavitt (@aslavitt)

Topher Spiro (@TopherSpiro)

Ben Wikler (@benwikler)

And the aforementioned Celeste Pewter (@Celeste_Pewter)

They will have news on CHIP/DACA/government shutdown situation faster than we will.

Here also are some articles from The Washington Post, Vox, Politico, and The Hill on the situation, and on aspects of it:

Call your MoCs and ask them to reauthorize the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which covers about nine million American kids.

Note: This information was originally part of a multi-purpose post published on September 29. We’ve reworked the post and reposted it as a separate, dedicated item so it can continue to circulate until CHIP is reauthorized. Apologies to subscribers, who will receive this as a ‘new’ post.

The latest deadline for the Senate to pass Trumpcare was September 30. That happens to be the same day that the CHIP program expired. Passed under the Clinton administration, the law provides for a program that delivers health coverage to American children in need.

Congress missed the deadline to re-up the 20-year-old law, meaning that funding will stop until the law is reauthorized. About nine million children could suffer disruptions in their health coverage or lose it entirely while waiting for Congress to act.

Here’s a sample script to use when calling your MoCs. As always, please check their websites and social media feeds before you call to see if they have said anything about the expiration of CHIP, and thank or shame them accordingly.

“Dear Senator/House Rep (Lastname), I am (Firstname Lastname, of town, zip code). I am asking you to do whatever you can to reauthorize CHIP, the 20-year-old program that provides health insurance to roughly nine million children. As you are probably aware, CHIP expired on September 30, cutting off funding for the program. Please reauthorize CHIP as soon as possible, and urge your colleagues to do so. Thank you.”